Strong writing is one of the most important skills for any college student. Many non-native English speakers have no idea what professors in the U.S. expect from a college paper. A college paper is a piece of writing than can be as long as 20 or more pages. Even native English-speaking college students struggle with how to succeed with such a difficult responsibility. Deborah Dessaso is the Writing Resource Coordinator at the University of the District of Columbia. Dessaso helps students reach the level of writing that college professors expect. She says college writing is very different from what many students experience earlier in their education. Usually a lot of high schools stress a lot of creative type writing. And so you can pretty much say what you want. Meaning is what you say it is. When you get to college you need to be able to formulate an argument and then defend it using credible sources. A credible source provides verifiable information from experts. This includes books, interviews, newspapers or studies. Most U.S. high schools teach students how to write five paragraph essays. Students are often unprepared for the amount of research they have to do for a college paper. Nabila Hijazi is one of the assistant directors of the University of Maryland Writing Center. Hijazi is also an international student from Syria in the second year of her PhD program in English studies. She says the language barrier is not the biggest problem for students whose first language is not English. Sometimes I see international students who know English grammar more than the native or the U.S.-born students. But maybe they do not know about the writing systems that we have here, in terms of organization, thesis, transition They do not know how to connect sentences; how to be direct. In a traditional paper, the first paragraph often contains the thesis statement. This statement is a one-sentence summary of the paper's main argument. The first paragraph of a college paper, or any paper, is usually the most challenging. The first paragraph is also the most important because it will guide the structure and show the voice of the entire paper. But not every type of writing is the same. There are also case studies and field reports in addition to traditional papers. Dessaso says that the best option for a student who wants improve their writing is to read. One professor tells me, 'You write something in your head before you write it on paper' Until you learn to imagine when you read, you'll never be able to imagine something that you have to write before you have to write it. Reading examples of the type of paper your professor expects you to write can be very helpful. Professors sometimes provide examples. You can also search the Internet for examples of papers about similar topics. But, you should never copy another person's work. Professors will find out if the work is copied and you will get in a lot of trouble. Hijazi adds that writing a paper takes time. Students should let other students read their work and listen to criticism.